Across the World
a story by steam66
MLP is copyright Hasbro
CHAPTER 1
Stock Take sat in his chair and desk, endless boredom parading across his face. The ashen gray pony was a relatively common sight among the Gryphonian Empire; his parents had immigrated during a bleak period of sales a generation ago among scores other poor ones, seeking their future in another country. Stock’s cutie mark (he had no idea what mentally unstable noblepony thought that was a good idea) was a notepad with indiscriminate scribbles across it, reflecting his high mathematical capability, about the only thing that got him hired as a clerk at the Grystin warehouse of the East Whinndia Trade Company- a job of drudgery and fairly low wages. Stock lived alone in a small house on the docks of the port city; day after day he could see the multitude of ships in the harbor parading in and out.
He had been born in Gryphon New Calendar year 1698; it was currently 1716. His parents had unceremoniously cast him out at the fresh age of 18 to earn his keep; and here he was now, sitting at his desk overlooking workers packing trade goods from the Far East regions, writing down the price additions with a hoof-affixed quill.
The quill dried in the middle of a letter for the third time, and Stock found his patience steadily thinning as he dipped it in the low-quality ink inside the inkjar, returning the quill to the paper. The Gryphonian Empire didn’t use parchment for documents the way the Equestrian regions did; press-printed pages were the norm, fitting with the somewhat less-magical architecture compared to that of Equestria. This small amenity was something Stock was thankful about- at least he didn’t have the page, rolled into a tube, constantly curling back into itself while writing.
Many times Stock had thought about immigration to Equestria, but he didn’t earn enough money for a trans-Antlernic crossing by ship. Savings would mean waiting ‘till he was an old pony to go; and then it would be pointless. He found himself sighing, probably the only thing to do besides stare into his paper and dip his quill in the inkjar again and again. Stock had fancied himself a sailor (Equestria and the Gryphonian Empire were strong allies, and a Celestial Navy recruitment center was across the bank) but he’d heard of the brutality by naval officers, something that was necessary to keep disgruntled, often drunken sailors loyal and ready for action.
A bell sounded in the distance, signalling the end of Stock’s workday and his boring freedom for several hours. Not that work was any more exciting, but at least there was something to do. Stock left through the great doors of the warehouse, emblazoned with the facade of the East Whinndia Company, an Eastern pony and Western exchanging wealth, all carved of stone. Of course it didn’t show workponies breaking their rears for a pittance of bits, for that was something the company considered undesirable.
Stock continued along the dockside, watching sailing ships unload their cargoes and take new ones. He saw young ponies and gryphons parading into a ship, hired aboard as extra hands, presumably. If the ship was sailing any longer than a few weeks then they’d learn the hard way how sea life works. Stock was wise to learn this before blindly charging up some random East Whinndiaman’s boarding ramp. This train of thought brought Stock to look over the two great East Whinndiamen, docked at the largest piers. Nobody knew why the original designer called them “Whinndiamen” (or for that matter what “man” meant beyond to crew something) but everyone, at least the dockside sightseer, saw the grandeur of the massive ships, lined with bright paint and gilded bows.
Of course, that abruptly changed inside the ship, as many facades did. It was no better than any other ship- dark, gloomy, stinking, and a breeding ground for rats and roaches by the dozens in the uncleanable nooks of the holds. The captains and officers, often nobleponies, ate and lived in good conditions in the roundhouse cabins, while the crew lived in the same poor conditions that promoted disease as any smaller ship plying long routes. The brutality was less than on a psychopathic officer’s Celestial Navy brigantine, but you could still count on being flogged.
This didn’t even begin to cover the diseases from wild climate changes as it ran through a third of the world’s circumference, the constant rocking, and the abysmal speed and handling of the ship, owing to its huge, poorly-proportioned hull- which looked better than it performed. With this round of horrors, Stock quite almost kissed himself that he hadn’t signed on to one of the damned things as a job.
Daydreaming aside, Stock walked back to his home, as the sun meandered down. Nobody knew why, but if the co-rulers of Equestria, the princesses Celestia and Luna, didn’t keep a handle on the sun and the moon, they would wildly accelerate and perhaps tear the world apart. Some ponies believed that it was a conspiracy by the princesses to rule the world eventually, but they didn’t seem to realize that any advantage would be lost on the fact that the world tearing apart tended to affect every country.
As Stock pulled himself to bed, he was sure of one thing-
“I’m going to die of boredom if something doesn’t change here”
Little did he know, something was about to change very much in his life.
END OF CHAPTER